Blood Rivals
by summerbaytroubles
Summary: Saskia - daughter of the legendary Thor Odinson. She's been raised in a palace for her whole life and grew up with her younger brother Erico and her cheeky devious cousin, Kerza Laufeyson. Her and Kerza have never had any bad blood between them. But something's here, something more powerful than the Tesseract and it will drive one of them to darkness and the universe into flames.


A princess.

A queen.

Saskia thought she had it all planned out. But really, she had no idea what she was doing. She felt beads of sweat roll down her face and almost disappear back into the pores of her skin. "Saskia, pay attention," her father whispered to her angrily. The eight year old glanced at her father and looked away again, her cheeks blushing slightly. She squinted her eyes and tried to look like she was interested in what the officials were yapping on about, but she couldn't.

"So what are we saying, Thor? We're going through with this or are we leaving it?" Vandral coughed. Thor turned to Saskia, his eyes begging for an answer.

"What do you think, Saskia?" he challenged his daughter. Saskia's dark blue eyes went wide and she swallowed.

"Uh…definitely option one," she began hesitantly.

"Smart kid," Sif smiled encouragingly.

"Smart or lucky?" Thor muttered in irritation, turning his back on her. "Fine. Meeting adjourned." Saskia's face fell at her father's words as everyone slowly got up and left the scene. Thor turned back to her once everyone had gone. Saskia braced herself – she knew the next step.

"Father, I…"

"No, Saskia. I need you to pay attention in these situations. How do you expect yourself to make a decent queen if you can't even understand what's going on?" Thor asked her seriously.

"It's not even going to be me with the throne! It's going to be Erico's," Saskia grumbled, folding her arms and looking away.

"That's not up to you," Thor reminded her slowly. "It's whoever the m-"

"The hammer chooses, yes father I know," Saskia stood up. "You have told me before, about a million times."

"The correct term for it is-"

"Father! Can I go outside, for some air or something? Before dinner?" Saskia begged, turning back around to face him. Thor sighed and nodded shortly, letting her leave the room. Sif came in then, looking extremely irritated.

"Thor, I thought we decided that pressuring Saskia at a young age wasn't the best for her?" she hissed, poking his chest.

"Well given the fact that you're not her mother, I don't think that _we_ decided anything," Thor snapped. Sif said nothing and just shook her head. "Sorry," Thor ended up mumbling. "I didn't mean to snap at you like that."

"It's fine…just treat her like a child, not one of your peers," Sif muttered, before leaving the room.

…

Saskia sat on the palace balconies, looking out to the dark seas and the white sandy shores, then observing the twinkling white stars settled neatly in the sky. Then someone slammed their hands around her mouth and she couldn't breathe. She tried to scream, but the words refused not come out, refused to leave her lips. She jumped out of the chair and spun around, but saw nobody. Then she turned back around and screamed. "SHHHHH!" Kerza hissed. Saskia clutched her chest in surprise. She really wasn't ready for it.

"Kerza can you stop doing that to mme? You know I don't like it," Saskia whispered angrily. Her cheeky dark haired cousin just shrugged, tying her jet black hair up in a messy bun.

"Your father told me to call you, it's dinnertime," Kerza blinked innocently.

"I don't want to go to dinner today," Saskia crossed her arms, pouting slightly.

"Why?" Kerza frowned.

"My dad won't shut up about…everything," Saskia admitted, bringing her knees up to her chest and letting her dark blonde hair flow with the wind, all over her face. "He won't let me be a normal child – whatever that's like." Kerza's face went from some form of pity to high levels of amusement.

"You would never know what it's like to be a 'normal child', Sask. I don't know if you're too sure of who you actually are," she giggled. "Me, perhaps. I'm not necessarily important. So I can have all the fun in the world!" Saskia rolled her eyes at her cousin's gloating.

"Alright, I get it. Let's down to dinner then, before my father comes searching."

…

_8 years later._

"Please, pass the salt, Jane," Thor said clearly over the table that evening.

"The salt is next to Saskia," Jane blinked at her husband. Kerza smirked at this comment and Saskia made no effort to even speak. "Ask her?"

"Yes well Saskia has never done what I've asked anyway," Thor grumbled, picking up another chicken leg. "So I don't know why she would do that." Loki raised his eyebrows and continued picking up the lightly spiced breadsticks that were in the pot on the table.

"Well giving that I spent the last ten years in that war room of yours instead of outside skipping around like any other child, I'm really not surprised." Erico's eyes darted from his big sister to his dad, not sure where his loyalties lay, if anywhere.

"Stop it you two," Jane hissed.

"No, I want to hear what Saskia has to say for herself," Thor interrupted her.

"Stop, Saskia, don't say anything," Erico whispered desperately.

"No continue, he wants to hear you continue, so continue!" came Kerza's voice. Of course, Kerza didn't say this out loud. She did this telepathically, just as her father used to – and still did. Thor placed his chicken leg back down on the plate.

"Oh god here we go," Loki rolled his eyes. "Look out everyone! Thor's put down his chicken! Now things are going to get serious!"

"Shut it Loki," Thor grunted.

"Well whatever you think is wrong with me, you're a whole lot worse. I mean, you don't exactly have father of the year award," Saskia muttered.

"Well, that seems to be a running trait in the family," Loki piped up, his hand in the air.

"No, you're a great dad," Kerza nudged her father.

"And you're a great daughter!" Loki mocked cheekily, which made Kerza grin. They were so alike. Saskia truly envied that.

"There is nothing more for me to say," Thor threw his hands up. "Because I can't prepare you for the throne when you don't even want it."

"Oho! It took you EIGHT YEARS to realise that I don't want the throne?" This highly enraged Saskia to no end.

"Eight years," Loki repeated in a whisper, raising his eyebrows even higher.

"That is a long time, isn't it?" Kerza hummed.

"Behave you two," Jane sighed. "Look I think we're done here for today." Saskia shook her head in irritation and stood up.

"Yes, I think you're right. Goodnight everyone." And with that, she left, swept straight out of the room. The table went silent afterwards.

"I…I think she's upset about something," Loki blinked, causing Thor to glare at him.

** A/N: Here we go, the first chapter. I hope this sets the tone for the rest of the story, I hope you guys like it so far. Let me know what you think.**


End file.
